More Texans than ever are near financial crisis. Here’s how your ZIP code is doing.
A report released Monday showed that COVID-19 hit at a time when more Texans than ever are one crisis away from financial ruin.
The report, put together by United Ways of Texas, studies a financial group called ALICE — which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. People in this category work, but they still cannot afford the basics for survival due to stagnant wages and the increased costs of essentials.
Of the 9.8 million households in 2018 in Texas, nearly 3 million were ALICE — an increase of 9% since 2007. That number is in addition to the nearly 1.4 million families who fall below the poverty level.
The report focuses on the increased cost of six essentials —housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a basic smartphone plan.
In Tarrant County, 25% of the population lived in this critical group as of 2018, and 11% of people lived in poverty. The county fell below the state average of 30%, but Fort Worth had more than the state average with 44% of families considered in the ALICE level. Arlington had 37% and Northeast Tarrant had 27%.
Tarrant County had vast discrepancies in economic level by ZIP code. In the ZIP code 76092 — located in northeast Tarrant — 8% of families were in the ALICE level and 3% lived below the poverty line as of 2018, according to the study. By contrast, 36% of people in Stop Six were in the ALICE category — ZIP code 76105 — and 35% of families were below the poverty level. In total, 71% of families in Stop Six lived below the ALICE level.
In Near Southside, 32% of people or families were in the ALICE level and 20% lived in poverty. In ZIP code 76107 — which includes Fort Worth’s Cultural District and Como — 14% of people lived in poverty and 25% were in the ALICE level.
The economic fallout of coronavirus has forced many people in the ALICE category to fall into poverty, or those above the ALICE threshold to drop below it. Since March, Fort Worth bar owners put their homes up for sale. Downtown restaurants such as Bird Cafe, Cantina Laredo, Taverna and The Brass Tap have been shuttered. The state hit the highest jobless rate — 12.8% —in recent history.
“No matter how hard ALICE families work, the gap between their wages and the cost of basics just kept widening,” said Adrianna Cuellar Rojas, president and CEO of United Ways of Texas, in a press release. “These already fragile ALICE households are now facing an even deeper financial hole due to the state of emergency created by COVID-19.”
The number of people at or below the ALICE level weighs down the entire state’s economy. If all Texas households had income above the ALICE threshold, the added value to the Texas GDP would be approximately $305.4 billion.
A full breakdown of the percentage of people and families below the ALICE level in Tarrant County ZIP codes is available at www.neuepro.com/texas. The “below ALICE” percentage includes those in the ALICE category and those living in poverty.
The report calls for stakeholders across all sectors to use its findings to remove obstacles to financial stability, identify gaps in community resources and to build data-driven solutions to help ALICE families.
This story was originally published September 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
